Åsmund Bjordal, who found the 1971 report by coincidence, was crewmember on a whaling ship off the coast of Labrador in 1970. This photo shows the harpoonist in the wheelhouse when the vessel M/V Landkjenning was near Greenland.

Photo:
Åsmund Bjordal

The “plastic whale” from 1971

46 years before a whale with its stomach full of plastic famously stranded in Norway, marine scientists found plastic in the stomach of a whale off Canada. We know this thanks to a newly discovered report.

So scientists found plastic in the stomach of a bottlenose whale 46 years before the more famous “plastic whale” stranded on Sotra, Norway, last year.

Expert surprised

Bjørn Einar Grøsvik, a researcher at the IMR and expert in marine plastic pollution, is surprised when he hears about the report.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard of plastic being found in a whale so long ago”, he says.

Both in 1970 and 1971, several vessels were catching bottlenose whale off Labrador. Here Åsmund Bjordal has captured the M/V Tornado and M/V Riston in the summer of 1970. (Photo: Åsmund Bjordal)

In the 1960s and 70s far less plastic was produced than today, according to the IMR scientist.

“On the other hand, no plastic was recycled, and there was less awareness that you shouldn’t throw things into the sea. So a higher proportion of the plastic that was produced in those days was probably thrown into the sea”, says Grøsvik.

Plastic smells like food

The plastic in the oceans is a big problem in several ways. Firstly, animals like whales eat the plastic and in doing so destroy their digestive systems. That’s what had happened to the whale that stranded on Sotra. It died after eating more than thirty plastic bags.

“Animals mistake plastic for their natural food because plastic left in the water becomes overgrown with a thin layer of bacteria or algae which may emit a smell that animals misinterpret. They think it smells food”, says Grøsvik.

It was in the stomach of a bottlenose whale scientists found plastic in 1971. Here is a bottlenose whale from one of the Institute of Marine Research's whale surveys. (Photo: Kjell-Arne Fagerheim)

He explains that scientists know of around 700 marine species that are vulnerable to large pieces of plastic.

“These animals can also get caught up in plastic or in fishing gear that has been lost – what we call ghost nets”, says Grøsvik.

Affects behaviour

The plastic in the oceans doesn’t disappear, but it is gradually broken down into tiny pieces that are impossible to see with the naked eye. These are known as microplastics, and they can also harm marine life.

“We know too little about the smallest particles, but laboratory experiments on fish using high concentrations of nano- and microplastics have shown that these particles can be absorbed by organisms and affect their behaviour”, says Grøsvik.

Experiments have also shown that microplastics can affect metabolism and cause inflammatory reactions.

Washing the decks of the M/S Landkjenning. Åsmund Bjordal, who is now a director at the IMR, is on the far left. (Photo: Sigbjørn Solholm)

The “plastic whale” that acted as a wake-up call

In January 2017, a Cuvier’s beaked whale stranded on the island of Sotra west off Bergen, Norway. It had become ill after eating more than thirty plastic bags and needed to be put down. The story of the whale moved and engaged people both in Norway and abroad, and helped to raise awareness of the dangers of marine plastics.

“The whale on Sotra played an absolutely key role in moving the problem of plastic up the agenda in Norway. The photos of it acted as a wake-up call to the general public, which responded by organising major beach clean-ups, for example”, says Grøsvik.

“Within a month of the Cuvier’s beaked whale being stranded on Sotra, various volunteer actions had collected more than 100 tonnes of plastic just on Sotra”, he says.

New field of research

Back in 1971, researchers probably didn’t realise how big a problem plastic pollution would become, thinks Grøsvik. The plastic found was only mentioned in a single sentence in the ICES report, which was written by former IMR researcher Ivar Christensen.

“But it was great that they recorded what they found in the whale’s stomach”, says Grøsvik.

This graph from the Web of Science shows the trend in the number of scientific papers containing the words “plastic, “debris” and “marine” over the past 30 years. (Screenshot: Web of Science)

A quick search for the words “plastic” and “debris” in an online archive of scientific papers reveals that nothing was written on this topic before 1980. From 2012 onwards there was a sharp increase in the number of papers. If we add the search term “marine”, there was virtually nothing until 2000. Once again there is a marked increase over the past six years.

“So the plastic found in 1971 was an early observation. And it is important for us to know when something was observed for the first time”, says Grøsvik.